Recently the Ministry of Culture has launched the National Mission for Cultural Mapping to provide a comprehensive overview of the cultural heritage of villages across India.
National Mission for Cultural Mapping
- It is a scheme run by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
- It was conceptualized with the objective of developing a comprehensive database of artists, art forms and other resources collated from the Ministry of Culture, other ministries and cultural organizations of the States, developed on a robust IT-enabled platform.
Objectives of the Project
- To create awareness about the power of cultural heritage and its interface with development and cultural identity.
- Cultural mapping of lakh villages with their geographical, demographic profiles and creative capitals.
- Creation of National Register of Artists and Art Practices.
- Development of a web portal and mobile app to function as the National Cultural Workplace (NCWP).
- The project aims to cover all the inhabited villages in India which are marked as ‘villages’ in the Census List, 2011 published by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
The database of the project is accessible through the ‘Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar’ web portal (https://mgmd.gov.in/).
Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar Scheme
- The process involves identification and mapping of the cultural assets and art repositories of the nation, which include artistic expressions, crafts and skills, knowledge traditions and cultural practices of oral, audio, visual or kinetic nature.
- During cultural mapping, it is proposed to take into account information about rituals, social and economic status of the artists and craftsmen of the identified community.
Classification of villages
- Villages are classified into seven to eight categories based on ecological, developmental and historical importance as well as cultural aspects like famous textiles or products or some historical or mythological events like freedom struggle or epics like Mahabharata.
Ecological category
- Bishnoi village of Rajasthan is a prime example of living in harmony with nature.
- Raini village is famous for Chipko movement.
Developmental importance
- Modhera of Gujarat is India’s first solar powered village.
Historical villages
- Kandel of Madhya Pradesh is the famous “Jal Satyagraha” site.
- Hanol of Uttarakhand and Vidurashwathar of Karnataka are villages related to Mahabharata.
- Panderethan of Kashmir (village of Shaivite mystic Lal Ded) Suketi, the oldest fossil park in Asia.
Survey Process
- Mapping of cultural assets of villages was done through field survey by joint teams of Ministry of Culture and Common Service Centre (CSC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
- It involved sharing of features of the village, block or district by the public.
- In the survey process a CSC Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) conducts meetings with local people and uploads interesting information about their village on a special application.
- It can be effectively used by any government ministry or other government organization to preserve and promote the cultures, traditions, art forms and other cultural identities of the identified villages.